Health care may turn out to be one of the reasons why Mitt Romney is the early Republican frontrunner, but not the dominant one that Bob Dole and George W. Bush once were. Rich Lowry warns, "Masscare may be to Romney in 2012 what abortion was in 2008 --an issue where a critical mass of conservatives don't quite buy his explanations (and I say this as someone who likes and respects Romney and wishes him well)."

Lowry suggests that Romney simply admit "that he flat-out made a mistake, that he tried an idea that ran off the rails." Romney has found this difficult to do even on issues where he has ended up in a different place than where he began. On abortion, for example, he has vaciliated between forthrightly acknowledging that he changed his mind and implying that he was never really all that pro-choice to begin with. But I think turning against his Massachusetts health care reform law will be easier said than done for Romney for a couple of reasons.